Querrey Feeling Confident Despite Loss at Legg Mason

Sam Querrey lost a match on Wednesday, but his confidence is still soaring.

The American won in Los Angeles last week, pulling out three three-setters en route to the title. He didn't get into Washington until Monday night and said that did affect him Wednesday in his 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss to Janko Tipsarevic.

"Obviously the temperatures are very different," Querrey said. "It's a little humid. it's a lot hotter. It's a big change from L.A. It was tough. It's a tough turnaround. But, I'm fine."

The two played Saturday in the semifinals with Querrey winning 6-7, 7-6, 6-4.

They had another serving battle on Wednesday. In the first set tiebreaker, Querrey double faulted on the first point and couldn't recover.

"I don't know what percentage I was winning on my second serves, but it didn't seem like it was that high. I just wanted a free point," Querrey said of his double fault in the tiebreaker.

Querrey has made big strides in the last year to improve his ranking. The Californian is currently ranked in the top 20. However, he knows he still has a big hill to climb to become an elite player.

"You have to perform well in grand slams," Querrey said. "Last week I beat [Andy] Murray, a top five player. I won that tournament, my ranking didn't change. You have to do well in bigger tournaments. That's what it's all about."

He said it's more of a challenge mentally rather than physically. The 6-foot-6 Querrey said he feels like he's in great shape.

I think Querrey is making a lot of progress and I actually think he has a shot at being a top 10 player at some point. He is still only 22 and he seems to be improving the mental part of his game. I think soon he will be the top American player.

Querrey will be playing in Cincinnati and Canada in the next two weeks, and if he could win either of those, it could catapult him into the top 10 in the world.

In other matches Wednesday, 10th-seeded Radek Stepanek was upset by Marco Chiudinelli, 6-1, 6-3. 11th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt retired from his match, with a right calf injury, against Alejandro Falla. Hewitt was trailing 7-5, 3-2 at the time. Ninth-seeded Enests Gulbis also retired from his match against Illya Marchenko with Marchenko leading 6-1, 1-0.